Dual-core notebook processors star at CES

The hottest news in notebooks at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is dual-core processors. Vendors are eagerly touting the advantages these processors offer'and they offer a lot.

Notebooks with dual-core processors offer significant performance increases that allow users to run multiple high-performance applications such as medical or engineering software, virus scanners or system backups, tasks that would lock up a system with a standard processor.

In addition, these processors lower power consumption and therefore improve battery life. Vendors are taking advantage of this and offering optional extended-life batteries and second batteries that can extend the total battery life of a notebook to nearly 11 hours. That means all-day computing with no worries about recharging.

One vendor showing off new dual-core processor notebooks at CES is Lenovo, which announced two new ThinkPad models, the ThinkPad X60/X60s and ThinkPad T60. These notebooks double the performance of previous models but are actually thinner and lighter than their predecessors.

Fujitsu also introduced the E8110 for business users. Thanks to the dual-core processor it offers significantly improved performance, increased battery life, better power management and extended connectivity options.

Alienware joined in the fun as well, introducing an AMD-based version of its most popular notebook in the government space. The new Aurora m7700 is a counterpart to the popular m7700i desktop replacement system, and the company offers it in a dual-core processor version.